What Happens When A Christmas Prince Falls For The Prince of Halloween

I recently finished reading The Nightmare Before Kissmas bySara Raasch. This is book #1 in the Royal and Romance series.

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT

  Rating: 3.75/5 stars

"Nicholas “Coal” Claus used to love Christmas. Until his father, the reigning Santa, turned the holiday into a PR façade. Coal will do anything to escape the spectacle, including getting tangled in a drunken, supremely hot make- out session with a beautiful man behind a seedy bar one night.

But the heir to Christmas is soon commanded to do his duty: he will marry his best friend, Iris, the Easter Princess and his brother’s not-so-secret crush. A situation that has disaster written all over it.

Things go from bad to worse when a rival arrives to challenge Coal for the princess’s hand…and Coal comes face-to-face with his mysterious behind-the-bar hottie: Hex, the Prince of Halloween.

It’s a fake competition between two holiday princes who can’t keep their hands off each other over a marriage of convenience that no one wants. And it all leads to one of the sweetest, sexiest, messiest, most delightfully unforgettable love stories of the year."

This book so obviously takes inspiration heavily from the idea of the holiday worlds in a “Nightmare before Christmas” but fleshes it out to a world of interconnected royal families and the politics that go into running a global holiday.

It's so interesting that I feel like every time I see this book come up on my feed its either from people giving it 5 stars and raving about it, or people DNFing it and whilst I was interested in it before the reviews started coming in, I must admit that a polarizing book always adds to my interest!

I think that in this case it comes down to expectations of the reader going into the book and the story trying to straddle the line between a fun, campy hallmark holiday romance story and a more serious political court corruption storyline. For me ultimately, the balance worked, and I enjoyed it, but I can also appreciate that people just wanting a fun and light contemporary romance might not enjoy the politicking story line and people who want the court maneuvering storyline might not enjoy the Hallmark movie cheesiness.

I really enjoyed the way that this book framed its critique on the commodification of Christmas though. Probably largely because watching how much the holiday has become about amassing piles of plastic crap has been one of my own personal gripes for some time.

Hex and Coal’s chemistry worked for me, and whilst a little insta-lovey their enthusiasm with each other was enjoyable to read (there was potentially a little more shaking and breathiness than I anticipated).

I must admit, the biggest issue I had with this is how easily the book was resolved lol but like I understand that bloody revolution and civil war probably thematically doesn’t fit in with the Hallmark Holiday movie vibes (honestly though, this book in that gritty world would be like crack cocaine to my brain).

I’m excited to see the next book with the enemies to lovers that’s set up for Kris. That poor boy deserves his HEA too.

Check out The Nightmare Before Kissmas, and discover what happens when you give in to your dark side or your holiday side.

Happy Reading :)